Zi Qi is currently a third year Mechanical Engineering undergraduate at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She pursued this course of study due to her strong interest in Physics and Mathematics. In addition, she plans to pursue a part-time business and accountancy degree program with ACCA within the next one year because she sees herself setting up a business in the education sector.
Besides managing the hectic workload of studies, Zi Qi has also been actively involved in school activities. She was the Assistant Financial Secretary of NUS Students’ Engineering Club in which she had to take charge of the reimbursements of the club and managed the expenses of some of the projects. She also served passionately in the NorthWest Community Development Council as the Vice-Chairperson of the Youth Assembly, and as a Cadet Inspector Instructor of the National Police Cadet Corps in the Headquarters. She was also the President of Student Council back in her secondary school. Furthermore, she has notable experience in the field of teaching, and training and development from her 4 years of part-time tutoring and as a camp facilitator.
Zi Qi is a disciplined and confident individual who enjoys picking up new skills and overcoming challenges. She loves learning as much as sharing the knowledge and believes that both will complement each other in her life journey. She believes in steadfast in duty and always takes pride in her work.
vetted by Chee Kiang
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Communicate if you do not want to be misunderstood!
There are many factors that define the role of an effective and/or good leader. To a large and important extent, I agree that leadership boils down to the relationship between the leader and his team (1Leader-Member Exchange Theory) because no matter how capable a leader can be, he will not be able to perform without any support from anyone. The leader and followers always come together to achieve a common goal and they do so by playing a different role. However, what seems to be the toughest part is maintaining a healthy working cum personal relationship for the both. Much effort is needed to build an effective 2-way communication and understanding; otherwise, things can turn out nasty.I always feel that I have a problem with maintaining lasting relationships especially with people who I cannot relate well to. Therefore, it is hard to strike a conversation on other topics besides work. Oddly, I think that it is acceptable so long as the current relationship still allows both parties to be friends, and it will be too hypocritical to try to be close to them.
Unfortunately, many of my friends have tried to proof me otherwise and convince me that this is how the society works, and no matter whether I can clique with the person, I must “pretend" that I can. I think that it is because of this, sometimes I may appear unapproachable and when I do not create chances for others to understand me, I am creating chances for them to misunderstand/misinterpret me and my decisions. However, I know that I still believe in my stand though I am quite deeply saddened by the ungrounded fact.
My father always have a classic line for me: if one person thinks negatively about you while others do not, then there must be something odd about that one person; however if majority feels that you are not good enough, then do some deep soul-searching because you may be the odd one. It makes sense but somehow I am not fully convinced. Is it really so?
How can we communicate with people who we have no common interest with and cannot relate to in order to build a good lasting relationship?
1 Also known as LMX or Vertical Dyad Linkage Theory, describes how leaders in groups maintain their positions through a series of tacit exchange agreements with their members. It mainly focuses on creating positive relations between the leader and subordinate.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Learning to grow in an intercultural environment
“Mom, what are you putting at those corners in the balcony?” I asked sleepily one fine morning. She was so focused on what she was doing and only after a while, she flashed a rectangular box at me and it read “ANTS AND COCKROACHES KILLER”. I knew why. Not only had the recent ‘invasion’ by unexpected new ‘visitors’ to my house caused my mother to keep the house extra clean, it had also resulted in the stocking up of more insecticide and Dettol. This was not the situation before they moved in.
My new neighbor was living in one of the rural parts of China before they came to Singapore. They started out as a family of 4, which over the years has increased to 7. They are friendly people, but one thing that disgusts us was their lack of hygiene.
They always had the habit of drying food (e.g. shrimps, cuttlefish, squids, vegetables) right outside their house for a few consecutive days. When the wind blows and carries the smell over, it is not pleasant at all. Furthermore, their food attracted ants and they did not have preventive measures in place. These ants started crawling around the whole place, causing inconvenience to all and putting small children at risk. At first, I was very irritated and tried to talk my mother to talk to them but she said that we should learn to accommodate to their custom. This may have been the way they lived back in their hometown. I was not convinced and I felt that since they are living here in Singapore, they should adapt to our style!
The door bell rang and my mother answered to accept a parcel. She signed for it but something caught her eye as she stood rooted in her position for a long time and one corner of her mouth twitched as she tried to control her anger. The look of disgust was written all over her face. I walked over and to my surprise, I saw my neighbor’s child peeing outside their house!
My mother took a while to compose herself. I would not have expected her to scold the child nor speak to our neighbor as she has never done that, but this time round, she invited my neighbor to come to our house for lunch. During lunch, I overheard their conversation and was amazed by how she managed to communicate to my neighbor without straining their relationship. Subsequently after the talk, my neighbor took note of their actions and the situation improved.
The whole episode would not have a good ending if I told them bluntly how irritated I was with their habits or if my mother had vented her anger by scolding the child. From this incident, I realized that we need to be in control of our emotions before deciding what to do. When in comes to communicating with someone whose culture and the way they were brought up is entirely different from us, we need to understand them first before trying to ask them to understand us. Only in this way, both parties will be able to come to a consensus faster.
My new neighbor was living in one of the rural parts of China before they came to Singapore. They started out as a family of 4, which over the years has increased to 7. They are friendly people, but one thing that disgusts us was their lack of hygiene.
They always had the habit of drying food (e.g. shrimps, cuttlefish, squids, vegetables) right outside their house for a few consecutive days. When the wind blows and carries the smell over, it is not pleasant at all. Furthermore, their food attracted ants and they did not have preventive measures in place. These ants started crawling around the whole place, causing inconvenience to all and putting small children at risk. At first, I was very irritated and tried to talk my mother to talk to them but she said that we should learn to accommodate to their custom. This may have been the way they lived back in their hometown. I was not convinced and I felt that since they are living here in Singapore, they should adapt to our style!
The door bell rang and my mother answered to accept a parcel. She signed for it but something caught her eye as she stood rooted in her position for a long time and one corner of her mouth twitched as she tried to control her anger. The look of disgust was written all over her face. I walked over and to my surprise, I saw my neighbor’s child peeing outside their house!
My mother took a while to compose herself. I would not have expected her to scold the child nor speak to our neighbor as she has never done that, but this time round, she invited my neighbor to come to our house for lunch. During lunch, I overheard their conversation and was amazed by how she managed to communicate to my neighbor without straining their relationship. Subsequently after the talk, my neighbor took note of their actions and the situation improved.
The whole episode would not have a good ending if I told them bluntly how irritated I was with their habits or if my mother had vented her anger by scolding the child. From this incident, I realized that we need to be in control of our emotions before deciding what to do. When in comes to communicating with someone whose culture and the way they were brought up is entirely different from us, we need to understand them first before trying to ask them to understand us. Only in this way, both parties will be able to come to a consensus faster.
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